The present invention relates to an output control method, apparatus, and computer program product, which can register, e.g., form overlay information, and the like, and can perform an output operation using the registered information.
Conventionally, in order to reduce the volume of data to be transferred from an external apparatus such as a host computer and to execute high-speed print processing, some print apparatuses allow registration of form overlay information, such as a standard form to be used frequently, utilizing ruled lines, characters, halftone screen, and the like of a table of, e.g., a strip. When such a print apparatus is used, the external apparatus generates only the variable data portion, transfers it to the print apparatus, and designates that print processing is to be performed using the form overlay information, thus performing the print operation using the standard form. Also, a print apparatus which can register, e.g., font data, macro data, and the like in addition to form data, and can perform a print operation using these data, is known.
Since the attributes of the registered form data, font data, macro data, and the like are not always equal to attribute information such as the resolution and number of gradation of data being printed currently or in the current print mode, the following problems are posed.
(1) When the resolution of the registered data is higher than that of current print data, since image data is formed in accordance with the resolution of the print data, the size of the registered form data undesirably increases.
(2) When the size of the registered data is larger than the paper size of print data, the print operation cannot be performed if print image data is formed by directly using the registered data.